MANILA, Philippines?Charice Pempengco has no idea what her dad looks like. She was only 3 when her parents split up, and hasn?t heard from him since. This makes her ambivalent about Father?s Day.

?Do I miss him? I don?t know,? she tells the Inquirer after spending time with a happy bunch of children early this week at the Center for Excellence in Public Education (Centex) campus in Tondo. ?Parang nag-iisip ako ng dahilan kung paano ko siya mami-miss, kasi wala siya sa buhay namin ng maraming taon. Seventeen na ako ? Masaya po ako sa buhay namin ngayon ng mommy ko.? (?I?m trying to find a reason to miss him, but he?s been away a long time. I?m 17; I?m happy with my life, with my mom.?)

The Filipino singing sensation, who started working at an early age to help her mother, explains why she feels this way: ?Hindi siya nagpaparamdam kahit na noong mga nakaraang Father?s Day. Simula nang mawala siya, wala na talagang communication. Yung mga kapatid niya minsan nagte-text kay mommy. Pero siya, wala talaga. Hindi ko na nga alam kung ano itsura niya, o kung naiisip niya pa ba ako.? (?He never tried to communicate. His siblings sometimes send text messages to mom, but not him. I don?t know what he looks like, or if he even thinks of me.?)

Young fans

At the Centex campus, young students scream at ear-piercing decibels to show their appreciation for Charice. The kids, among the best and brightest from Manila?s poorest families, don?t look deprived at all, with well-scrubbed faces and in their neat clothes.

The school, a project of the Ayala Foundation and the Department of Education, subsidizes the education of 516 students from kindergarten to grade six. The scholars also get free uniforms.

This rainy morning, Charice is lending her presence to the school?s environmental campaign, ?My Backyard: Green Technology, Future Communities,? which the computer company Hewlett-Packard is pursuing on a worldwide scale with Centex as launching pad.

HP first hooked up with Centex when it renovated the school?s computer room and donated desktop computers, laptops, digital and video cameras, a TV set and editing software.

To kick off ?My Backyard? yesterday, the students scheduled a cleanup of three barangays in Tondo.

Charice looks streetwise sporty in black high-cut Converse sneakers. Brimming with confidence, she exhorts her audience to save the planet.

While singing a minus-one version of ?Always You,? a track from ?Inspiration? (the last of her albums with Star Records), Charice goes down the stage to bond with her audience. The shouts get louder. When the song ends, Charice gives away HP-sponsored notebooks and pens. Another round of cheering erupts: ?Auto-graph ? auto-graph ?? Charice obliges.

A shy student

Later, in one of the classrooms, she reminisces about her own school days in Cabuyao, Laguna. Her favorite subjects, she says, were English, Science and History. ?Very shy ako as a student. ?Hindi po ako mahilig mag-recite sa klase, kahit alam ko ang sagot, natatakot ako.?

She says the problem developed from a deep-seated fear: Kasi yung mga classmates ko ?pag may mali, nagtatawanan sila ... Sumasagot naman ako ?pag galit na yung teacher at wala ng ibang matawag.?

When she started joining singing contests at age 7, Charice says there were days when she had to skip school, although she made up by studying hard for the exams, which gave her good grades.

When singing became a profession and schedules made her lose sleep, Charice had to drop out from school. She was 12 then. But she still believes in getting an education, so she?s currently enrolled in an online study program.

Ah, yes, if only her father could see her now.